Health care workers union launches quality of care initiative

Service Employees International Union — United Healthcare Workers West kicked off a different kind of collective bargaining with Catholic Healthcare West on Tuesday.

The focus — for now — is an ambitious pledge to improve quality of care. There was no mention of wages, benefits and working conditions.

The opening salvo from a union that represents more than 15,000 workers at 32 CHW-owned hospitals in the state was an initiative dubbed “Let’s Get Healthy California.”

The union plans the same approach when it heads to the bargaining table next year on behalf of thousands more workers at Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and other nonprofit health care systems in the state.

“This is a single, united campaign that speaks to the needs of everyone in California,” SEIU-UHW president Dave Regan said in a news call Tuesday. “We want these negotiations not to be a lowest common denominator exercise with our employers, but to improve quality and reduce the cost of our health care system.”

The union pledged to work with consumers, health care companies, civic organizations, businesses, elected officials and others to commit to “real solution to improve health in our state.” The union’s three goals are to:

Reduce chronic diseases by working with Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Legislature to adopt state policy to reduce obesity, diabetes, asthma, depression, hypertension and heart disease by 50 percent in 10 years.

Recruit and train 250,000 more healthcare workers to meet the demand of a growing and aging population and reduce incidence of chronic disease.

Deploy 10,000 health care workers to join with community partners to launch a massive statewide public education and action campaign to improve wellness, coordinate care and emphasize health education.

“As health care workers, we are in a perfect position to reduce costs and improve quality of care,” Susie Boedecker, a critical care assistant at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, said during the call.

SEIU called on CHW and other nonprofit health systems up for contract negotiations next year to commit money to a $250 million annual fund to recruit and train the health care workforce of the future.

Local CHW hospitals include Mercy San Juan, Mercy Folsom, Mercy Folsom, Methodist and Woodland Memorial. The Woodland Clinic, which is affiliated with Woodland Healthcare, and Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital in Grass Valley are generally considered part of the group, too.

CHW contracts expire in April.

There were no specifics about how the union hopes to achieve these ambitious standards. Chronic disease, an inadequate work force and inability to get Californians to take responsibility for their own health and wellness are issues that have plagued the state for decades.

Catholic Healthcare West “welcomes any serious idea to improve the health and wellness of Californians,” human resources chief Herb Vallier said in a prepared statement.

“We look forward to hearing more about Service Employees International Union’s ‘Let’s Get Healthy California,’ effort,” Vallier said. “We are also looking forward to open and substantive negotiations with SEIU. We will work with SEIU to reach a contract that sustains our mission, is affordable for our organization and employees, and reaffirms CHW’s aspiration to remain an employer of choice in health care.”